Napa Valley, California–It wasn’t easy, convincing Japanese executives to build the first Lexus model outside Japan. But when an Ontario-based plant started building the Lexus RX crossover earlier this decade, the suits were elated with both the quality and sales results.
Not only did the RX become Lexus’s global sales leader — the 2003 plant opening, in Cambridge, also coincided with the reveal of a hybrid version. That model hit the market a few years later and a technologically advanced yet planet-friendly sheen to the brand.
In Canada, about 40 per cent of all 2008 Lexus sales were RX models, with about one-fifth of those being the 400h hybrid version. Both versions set sales records by October, even as they entered grey-hair status in market terms.
With all this success, it’s not surprising that Lexus has chosen a conservative path for its all-new 2010 RX 350, and 450h hybrid counterpart (see “Cleaner, meaner RX Hybrid” for 450h details).
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After her win of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work on Vicky Christina Barcelona, Penélope Cruz will be even more visible through 2009, as she stars in Pedro Almodovar’s Broken Embraces, and co-stars with Marion Cotillard, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Dame Judi Dench, Sophia Loren, Fergie (the one from Black Eyed Peas) and Daniel Day-Lewis in Nine, Rob Marshall’s musical remake of Federico Fellini’s classic, 8½, both due to hit theatres this November.
Earl Dittman caught up with the talented Spanish beauty about those films, and her Academy Award-winning role, presumably when she stopped for a moment to catch her breath.
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On pages 24-26 of DRIVEN’s Comedy Issue you will find Elizabeth Walker’s entirely fictitious tale of a flirtatious writer and a mentally well-endowed professor-type discussing the seductive power of funny men.
To prepare that piece, Ms. Walker spoke to Dr. Pat Barclay, a researcher in evolutionary psychology at Cornell University. You will find an excerpt from their actual conversation below.
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Hip Hop often works best when it’s at its most particular. Classified, who has thrived in the nitty gritties of the independent East Coast rap scene for over a decade, gets quite particular on Self-Explanatory, his major-label debut.
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As a tie-in to The List: Divine Comedy on page 16 of DRIVEN’s Comedy Issue, we present more of the silver screen’s top comic actors musing on the serious pursuit of cheap laffs.
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Due to an anticipated high demand, we proudly present, as a supplement to Knockworst on page 51 of DRIVEN’s Comedy Issue, even more completely original Knock-knock jokes of disproportionately dubious quality. For you to use at parties and such.
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I was there the day funny died.
In 1990, as a member of Moxy Früvous, I was busking for chump change on Bloor Street in Toronto in paisley vest and pink tie, and funny music was alive and well. A year later Fruvous had a gold record in Canada — at the exact moment Nirvana went to number one with “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
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